SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES (Eng.)

1- Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What are you guys currently up to?

Denver: Well, we’ve just finished our first full-length record, so the last many months have been spent working on that. In support of that, we’re currently working on booking a western Canadian tour. Aside from that, we’re discussing plans for a music video, but nothing concrete on that yet.

2- First off, could you make some history of the band?

Denver: Sure, we started in 2010 as an instrumental prog/bluesrock band – with a light touch of metal stylings – under the name Angry Midget (a play on one of our favorite prog bands, Gentle Giant). We had it for a very short time until we settled on Super Massive Black Holes. The band was started by myself (Denver Bergreen – guitar) and Jake Reimer (guitar/vocals), then we recruited Clay Steadman (drums), and later Tristan Peterson (bass/vocals). We started to play a one-off gig (a large blues festival in our hometown of Calgary) – I had a friend with an «in», but by the time we had a setlist and a recorded demo, we were too late to register, so we decided to play prog and jazz infused death metal. (laughs)

3- How could you describe your sound?

Denver: I would classify us as Experimental Death Metal. Basically we roll progressive rock and metal, the odd jazzy-fusion type section, and hooky but technical death metal, and then give it all a bit of a post-rock vibe. It’s a bit hard to explain, to be honest, but ultimately we make the kind of music we want to hear, with absolutely no borders or limitations put on the composition. Out-of-the-box yet emotive is what we strive for.

4- What are the band’s main musical influences?

Denver: A somewhat staggering amount of influences can be heard on this new record. Off the top of my head: Animals as Leaders, Blotted Science, Scale the Summit, Gentle Giant, Cloudkicker, Decapitated, Gorod, TRAM, Mastodon, Gorguts and countless others.

5- How is the feedback for your new album being?

Denver: We haven’t released it yet, so very few people outside the band have heard it, but words like «love» and «great» were used to describe it, so hopefully that means it’s good!

6- And are your personally satisfied with the final outcome?

Denver: So much so I can’t even express it properly. It turned out even better than our wildest dreams. It was a completely DIY project, from recording/mixing/mastering to artwork. Everything turned out so well, and we are all pleasantly surprised.

7- How could you describe this opus in just 3 words?

Denver: hmm, I would say «Definitely our Magnum».

8- How has the production process for your new release been?

Denver: As I mentioned before, it was totally DIY. I fell in love with producing about 2 years ago, and have been taking lessons from a talented producer in my area and voraciously learning ever since. This record is easily my best work, and I learned a ton while producing it. SMBH is a tricky band to produce since we go from 0-60 and back to 0 in no time flat, and have a huge array of sounds we need to convey our ideas properly. We figured self-production was the best way to do things since having to explain to someone outside the band that «this part needs a jazzy feel, this part needs full-on ripping metal sound, and this part needs an ambient vibe, etc» seemed like it would be impossible. So we did it ourselves, and it turned out great!

9- And how do you use to work on the songwriting?

Denver: Songs often (but not always) begin with me making a guitar demo with all the riffs structured in a way I think they fit somewhat, then we get together as a group and refine it and bitch about it until it’s perfect and has the vibe we all feel it deserves. Sometimes new parts are improvised, sometimes they’re written later, on our own, but nothing gets the seal of approval until everyone is happy with it.

10 – Finally, what are you near-future plans?

Denver: At the moment we’re planning a western Canadian tour, with hopefully a trip to the states in the cards for the near future. Also, we’re hashing out music video ideas for one of the new songs, but we’re still discussing the direction we want to take.

11- That’s all from our side, thanks again for taking your time to answer our questions. If you now want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Super Massive Black Holes – Calculations of the Ancients, out soon on Minotauro Records (Italy). Check out www.smbhmusic.com, www.minotaurorecords.com, and http://minotaurorecords.bandcamp.com/ for more info!